Life Is A Beach: Life Is A Beach / A Real-Thing Fling

The door at the Blue Moon led to a narrow alleyway that culminated at a boardwalk leading down to the sand. The beach at this hour was deserted except for a lone figure walking along the high tide line about a hundred yards south. Karma.

He jogged to catch up with her. As he approached, she wheeled around, startled. Her eyes were wide, her lips parted. Her hair stood out around her face and seemed to snap and crackle with energy. He thought he had never seen anyone more beautiful in his life.

The breakers were rolling in at a fast pace, giving rhythm to the night. This part of Miami Beach seemed far away from the hoopla of South Beach night life.

“What are you doing here?” she demanded, stopping dead in her tracks.

He thought he saw the tracks of tears dried on her face, but perhaps he was mistaken. “I came to offer my services,” he said.

Karma started to shake her head, but on the off chance that she wouldn’t object, he captured her face between his hands. “Or rather,” he added, captivated by the confusion this brought to her eyes, “the services of my boat.”

“I don’t need—” but she stopped talking in midsentence, all the better for him to explain.

“So you can scatter your aunt Sophie’s ashes,” he said gently, moving his head closer and tilting it into kissing position.

“How did you know about that?” she breathed, and her breath was sweet and soft upon his lips. Her eyes were deep and unfathomable, and she didn’t pull away.

“When a person opens himself up and begins to receive energy, all sorts of things happen,” he murmured, and then he kissed her.

As soon as his mouth touched hers, he wanted her. He wanted her with all the passion and depth of a man in full pursuit even though he warned himself again that she wasn’t his type. Yet the image of her nipples straining against the fabric of that brief top she’d worn to yoga class was burned into the part of his brain that governed reason and good sense; he wanted her. Perhaps this lustful feeling was the ultimate expression of the energy he was experiencing?

Slowly his lips explored hers, and before he knew it his tongue was seeking new territory and his hands were tangled in her hair. She was a full participant, her tongue meeting his, her teeth nibbling at his lower lip, her hands pressing against his back to draw him closer.

When she pushed him away it was with less conviction than he had expected.

“You’re a client,” she said, the words approximating a gasp of passion. “I shouldn’t be doing this.”

“If you’d like, I’ll resign as a client,” he said. “I could be just plain Slade Braddock, man on the loose.”

She braced her hands against his chest and shoved, forcing him to take a step backward.

“More like Slade Braddock, man on the make,” she said.

“Anything wrong with that?” he asked amiably.

“You’re supposed to go out with Jennifer on Friday night.”

“She told me. What if I don’t want to go?”

“That will get me in trouble with Jennifer, not to mention Goldy, who is her aunt. Don’t do that to me, Slade.”

“Goldy is the one who told me you might be on the beach.”

“She may not know that Jennifer has dibs on you.”

“I have free will. I can see—or not see—any woman I please. So do you want to go out in the boat with me or not?”

“A houseboat isn’t something you’d take out to sea,” she said, casting a look in his direction. He didn’t know the meaning of that look, but it was definitely not one that said go away, so he kept walking along beside her.

“Toy Boat has a dinghy,” he told her.

“So you’re planning on rowing out to sea? That’s not advisable, you know. The waves can get pretty big offshore.”

“Maybe it isn’t called a dinghy. I don’t know because I’m not that experienced a boater. It has a motor.”

“And what strings are attached to this offer?”

“Absolutely none. Maybe while we’re in the boat we could talk about freeing me up. Maybe we could talk about freeing you up.”

He saw her rolling her eyes. “I’m as free as I want to be,” she said. She swiped at her nose with a tissue that he hadn’t realized she carried in her hand, increasing his suspicion that she’d been crying.

“Maybe that’s the problem. You need to feel attached to someone,” he said hopefully. She could be lonely, he supposed. She could be shedding a few tears because she had no one to walk with on the beach on a beautiful and romantic night such as this one, which could play into his purpose really well.

“I don’t think I want to be attached in the way you’re thinking about.”

“Perhaps you need to free up your chakras, all seven of them. Have you ever thought about giving yourself permission to feel, Karma?”

She shot him a skeptical glance.

Realizing that this line of discussion wasn’t going any further, he changed the subject. “How far do we walk? When do we turn around and go back?”

She seemed on the verge of smiling when she looked up at him. “Why? Too much exercise for you, cowboy?”

“Not at all,” he said firmly, wishing suddenly that she could observe when he and Lightning, his prize quarter horse, were cutting cattle. She’d see that he was a superior athlete, an experienced horseman. He was out of his element in sea-sand-sky territory, that’s for sure.

“I usually stroll to the next lifeguard station, then head back. You’re welcome to go back now, if you like. These walks of mine are usually solitary.”

“Too bad,” Slade said.

“Not really. Solitude is good sometimes.”

“Karma, when a woman looks like you, acts like you and kisses like you, there’s no reason to be alone.”

She emitted an exasperated sigh. “Maybe I want to be alone. Maybe I like it that way.”

“And maybe I’m the king of Siam, but I don’t think so.”

“I don’t think there is a king of Siam anymore. For that matter, there’s not a Siam anymore. It’s called Thailand these days.”

“You get my point,” he said.

They had almost reached the lifeguard station, and Karma slowed down. She drew a deep breath before speaking. “I know what you were looking at in yoga class tonight when I was doing that backbend, and I might as well tell you that unless you concentrate on being centered, you’re not doing your blocked chakra any good.”

He turned back toward the Blue Moon when she did and wondered what she would do if he kissed her again. He decided not to chance it. “I believe I feel my chakra becoming unblocked,” he said, not believing that he was actually speaking these words that flowed so easily from his lips. “I feel a certain—a certain—” He struggled to think of something that would convince her that he was making progress.

“A certain letting go?” Karma supplied.

He grinned and punched a fist into his opposite hand. “That’s it! A ‘letting go’!”